Optimizing electronic music for live PA's

[wearetemporary]

Hey all,

My name is Mark, and I was wondering if some of you had some pointers about how best to optimize electronic music (i.e. backing tracks) for live PA's? Note that my current setup requires that all backing tracks will be mixed down to stereo files containing all instruments (i.e. one stereo backing track with drums & synths etc per song / cannot send separate tracks to FOH).

1) Assuming I'm playing 500-2000 capacity venues with a solid full-range FOH PA's, how do—generally speaking—FOH systems sound different from full-range studio speakers? To my ears live PA's often veer slightly brighter than studio systems... would it therefore be advisable to EQ the live tracks less brightly? If so, what specific frequency ranges do you think are the most "problematic" or "different" live and might benefit from some mix adjustment on the live tracks?

2) When mixing my tracks for live playback, I've often read that one ought to compress and limit the live tracks less than one would a commercial release. I understand that heavy limiting degrades the audio, and that in a live environment volume (i.e. limiting) really isn't necessary, so it makes perfect sense to me to not limit live playback tracks. But what about mild compression to enhance the glue of a mix? What are the reasons one might chose to avoid finalizing tracks with 2-3 db of gain reduction from say an SSL Comp when preparing live tracks?

3) Currently my live tracks are mixed and balanced to peak around 0dBVU. That obviously leaves a lot of headroom to bring up the volumes, for example using a limiter more as a normalizer (i.e. not actually using the limiter for gain reduction)... would you advise against this? I just want to make sure I strike the right balance here between providing enough signal at my interface's output set at unity vs. my output being so loud that it's clipping the FOH inputs... basically I'm just wondering what the best practice here would be, keeping in mind signal to noise ratio, optimal gain structure between computer and FOH desk etc.

4) Any other tips?

Thank you & looking forward to reading your thoughts!! x

-Mark

 

[rhythmgj]

Just to be sure I understand you, you are singing to these tracks? Performing instrumentally (guitar?)? Or with more electronic instruments? Or a "just press play" live situation?

Other than a special mix taking the answer(s) to the questions above into consideration, and not over-limiting or compressing (as a general rule), I personally wouldn't do anything different mix-wise than I would do normally for general purposes/release. 0 dB may even be a bit hot, I would probably want to see those meters peak a little lower. Other than that, not much different. Live EQ may be a bit brighter, but you will run into so many varied systems with so many different amp and speaker combinations, passive and active set-ups, etc., etc. that I would just EQ what sounds best to you, and then deal with the live engineers as necessary. When I did music or sound design audio for theater productions in certain venues with specific engineers that I knew had certain, shall we say, "EQ proclivities" (read: tin ears), and maybe I had a chance to preview tracks in the house before the production, then I might brighten or dull certain things as I saw fit. But otherwise, barring that kind of knowledge beforehand, you've got to trust your mix and hope for best translation, and deal with each room on its own terms. You may even find yourself using the tracks to back you up for other promo opportunities like television or someone's web show, and you don't want to have to make 1,000 mix variations if you can avoid that.

One tip-- Have all of your own (probably double) sets of adaptors, cables, and accessories that you might need in various set-ups. A good live sound person should have most anything needed in their kit; I know I do, but I've often found that not to be the case in venues run by others. Be prepared as best as possible for anything. Another good tip-- if you know you are playing such and such venue next week or next month, get in contact with the sound person or tech team ahead of time, find out what their requirements are, and try to (discretely) assess their level of knowledge, so that you both can make the most of your stage time and you'll at least be clued-in to any potential problems. If you don't have a stage-plot and a standard input list for the sound tech, that is actually a smart thing to do as soon as possible. In most cases, this will ingratiate you with him or her immediately, as it will be a cue to your professionalism and make their job a lot easier (no guess work). Also include some notes on what you want in your monitor.

Last "tip" I can think of; just a dream of mine actually... If you could have 2-4k removed from all PAs and EQs that will be used in live situations, that would be a great start. At least for vocal music, that is almost always where feedback issues arise.

 

[wearetemporary]

Hey Gregg,

Thanks for your thoughts!

So basically I play some extra synths, percussion, and sing to my backing tracks.

Just to make sure we're on the same page re gain comments, I wrote 0dBVU (ie roughly -12/15 dBFS). When you commented that 0dB was still too hot, were you thinking of 0dBFS, or did you think that even 0dBVU is too hot? If the latter, what do you think the peak dBVU should be?

Re plots, riders, gear, etc I'm all sorted!

-Mark

 

[rhythmgj]

Yes, sorry, I read right past that and "defaulted" to dBfs. If you are generally at -12 I would think that would be fine.

So if you're singing and playing keys plus percussion, you will definitely want to have a good idea of a monitor mix you'd like; hopefully that is part of your "pre-flight paperwork." Are you sub-mixing anything, or just sending individual inputs (probably the preferred method) for everything on stage? Do you also include a set-list with any sound cues (for instance particular vocal effects on certain songs)?

Have you done some of this before? It would be interesting to see/hear your set-up if you have anything you could post!